MacRumors recently learned that Apple's One to One training program for Mac, iPhone and iPad may be coming to an end soon, and we can now confirm that Apple Stores are holding meetings with retail employees about phasing out the membership-based service, which has been available under its current name since May 2007. One to One members should be informed about the changes in the near future.
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Apple is retiring One to One to focus on free public workshops such as Mac Basics, Personalize Your Mac, iPhone and iPad Basics, iCloud Basics and iPhone Photography. Group Training and Open Training will be discontinued immediately, while Personal Training will remain available for customers that recently purchased One to One until their membership expires, according to sources.
One to One costs $99 per year and provides customers that purchase a Mac with individualized tutoring sessions from Apple retail employees related to Getting Started With Your Mac, Getting Started With Your iPhone, Getting Started With Your iPad, iCloud, Mail Contacts & Calendars, iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie, iTunes, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Logic Pro.
Update: One to One will be retired on September 28th per an internal memo obtained by 9to5Mac.
Top Rated Comments
It makes sense. One-on-one training is much more costly, and if they can answer any pertinent questions in group training, it's a lot more cost-effective use of retail employees' time.
Apple Retail wasn't built on cost effective. You don't line your stores with stainless steel sheet and source stone from one Italian quarry to be cost effective. It was built on user experience and the ideal of taking an iPod purchaser and turning them into a promotor of the company and its ideals. It was welcoming, inclusive and did more to overcome the notion that Apple products were over-priced, hipster, elitists toys than any advertising campaign could have ever done (which is were the value showed on the P&L sheet).Now it is going the other way. $17,000 for an accessory that will be outdated in a year and official classified as "obsolete" by Apple in 5 years, oh and you have to have an appointment to buy one. Apple was about approachable technology for the people. Computers that let you work on your hobbies without forcing you to make computers your hobby. Not the cheapest, but the best user experience for the price. A $20 MP3 player? Nope. But a $499 MP3 player that was better than any $1,000 player on the market. It was uncompromising in terms of what a user got, without being snooty about it. It was built to do something great. What people did was what was important and One To One got people doing things. It was money, labor and effort that was well spent. Sad to see it go.
Dude, the only people that used this service were people who knew nothing in the first place. YouTube will tell you more in 5 minutes than that $99 will get you in an hour.
I was coming from 20+ years of DOS/Windows and it was a great help to me when I got my first Mac. I've been to those group sessions and they were no help because you had to teach at the lowest possible level. The One on One were a big help to me because I could ask stuff on a more accelerated level.